CFPB Invites Comment on Larger Participant Thresholds

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued advance notices of proposed rulemaking seeking public comment on whether to revise the thresholds that define “larger participants” in key consumer financial industries. Stakeholders have until September 22, 2025 to weigh in on whether they would like to see the thresholds amended and on how potential changes could impact both industry and consumers.

On August 8, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published four advance notices of proposed rulemaking (ANPRMs) inviting the public to comment on whether the Bureau should propose new rules amending existing “larger participant” thresholds applicable to the following industries:

1. Consumer reporting
2. Automobile financing
3. International money transfers
4. Consumer debt collection

Following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, the newly formed CFPB was responsible for defining nonbank “larger participants” in different consumer financial markets over whom the Bureau would have “supervisory authority.”

CURRENT LARGER PARTICIPANT THRESHOLDS

Generally, the CFPB has the power to issue rules impacting consumer financial service providers and can bring investigations and enforcement actions against those providers. “Supervisory authority” enhances the Bureau’s power, giving the agency the ability to examine providers and assess their compliance with consumer financial laws and regulations. Such examinations can lead to findings and recommendations provided by the Bureau to examinees and, in some cases, can lead the Bureau to commence formal enforcement activity.

In final rules issued between 2012 and 2015, the CFPB determined the following threshold tests for nonbank larger participants in the aforementioned industries:

• Consumer reporting: Nonbanks with greater than $7 million in annual receipts resulting from consumer reporting activities, including selling consumer reports, reselling consumer reports, and specialty consumer reporting activity [1]
• Automobile financing: Nonbanks with at least 10,000 aggregate annual originations, including granting credit for automobile purchases, refinancing automobile credit obligations, and purchasing or acquiring such obligations [2]
• International money transfers: Nonbanks that facilitate at least 1,000,000 aggregate annual international money transfers, including international money transfers facilitated by affiliates of the nonbank entity [3]
• Consumer debt collection: Nonbanks with greater than $10 million in annual receipts resulting from consumer debt collection activities, including receipts obtained by third-party debt collectors, debt buyers, and collection attorneys [4]

REQUEST FOR COMMENTS

Each of the CFPB’s ANPRMs asks potential commenters to weigh in on a series of questions and topics, including:

• whether the nonbank larger participant thresholds, as they currently stand, are appropriate;
• potential thresholds that may constitute a better test for defining larger participants;
• the impacts changing the current thresholds may have on both industry participants and consumers; and
• the costs the current thresholds and any proposed future thresholds may have for participants in each of the respective industries.

Comments on each of the CFPB’s ANPRMs are due by September 22, 2025.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The CFPB’s ANPRMs suggest that the current administration is looking to downsize the portfolio of covered entities subject to CFPB examination authority and present the first opportunity for industry participants to weigh in on the Bureau’s larger participant thresholds since they were finalized more than a decade ago. Though the CFPB’s activities have been significantly curtailed under current leadership, the thresholds that the Bureau determines can impact the ability of future administrations to supervise and examine consumer financial service providers. Industry participants and trade groups representing those industries may consider submitting comments to the CFPB, weighing in on whether they would like to see the current larger participant thresholds changed.

Although the CFPB’s ANPRMs raise the possibility of future changes for many covered entities currently subject to the larger participant rules, consumer financial service providers should be measured in how they approach altering existing compliance practices. Even if the nonbank larger participant thresholds are amended, the CFPB, other federal regulators, and state regulators, including state attorneys general, still have the power to investigate and bring enforcement actions against those entities formerly subject to examination.

Moreover, private plaintiffs can still bring suit against nonbank consumer reporting, automobile financing, international money transfer, and consumer debt collection companies under existing federal and state laws, regardless of the ultimate outcome of the CFPB’s rulemaking.